National Healthcare Decisions Week
The week of April 16-22 is National Healthcare Decisions Week, a time when there is an increased focus on completing advance directives.
If you or someone you know needs help completing an advance directive, there is free help available!
Call 231-733-8643 and schedule an appointment for the second Thursday of every month between 10 a.m. and noon, at Tanglewood Park in Muskegon.
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Family Caregiver Classes Offered
Free caregiver classes are offered Fridays from 1-2:30 p.m. at Tanglewood Park. Respite is available - call 231-739-5858.
Classes will provide caregivers information on:
* managing demands of caregiving
* providing personal care
* home safety
* managing medications
* advance directives
* caring for someone on bed rest
* coping with dementia
* respite
* Alzheimer's Disease
* nutrition
For more information, call Virginia at 231-733-3531, or Robbi at 231-733-3567.
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Speak up! Anytime day or night. Report abuse and neglect.
855-444-3911
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Senior Resources' Elder Care Specialists are available to assist with
Options for Long Term Care
Call: 231-733-3585
or Toll Free: 1-800-442-0054. In Oceana - 231-559-0331.
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Stay Connected
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Senior Resources CEO visits Capitol Hill
Pam Curtis, CEO of Senior Resources (back left), attended a policy briefing with the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a) recently. She and several other AAA staff members had the opportunity to meet with Sen. Gary Peters (pictured, center), as well as with Sen. Debbie Stabenow and Rep. Bill Huizenga.
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Older Michiganians Day is May 17
Join us at the state capitol as we advocate for older adults on May 17, Older Michiganians Day.
Older Michiganian's Day (OMD) is an annual rally that takes place on the East Lawn of the Capitol Building in Lansing. This event brings together hundreds of seniors, aging service providers and senior advocates
with their legislators and key state officials.
Interested individuals are invited to join this event to show their support for policies that support older adults. This free event provides the opportunity to speak with a unified voice to the Legislature expressing the concerns, challenges, and opportunities for older adults by the experts, older adults themselves and aging service providers.
Click
here for more information. If you're interested in attending, contact Pam Curtis at pam@seniorresourceswmi.org. We'll try to arrange car pools, or even a bus if there's enough interest.
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Congress still has much budget work to do
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Recently in Washington, D.C. ...
Although the U.S. House Republican leadership decided not to take a vote on the American Health Care Act on March 24, it is still possible that the legislation could be revisited at a later date. B
elow, therefore, is a brief explanation of some of the more onerous provisions of the Act as proposed in amendments submitted to the House Rules Committee. The Act, as amended, would:
- Convert federal Medicaid funding to a per capita allotment and limit growth beginning in 2020 using 2016 as the base year and give states the option to receive block grant for nonexpansion adults and children or only nonexpansion adults.
- Allow states to require work as a condition of eligibility for nondisabled, nonelderly, nonpregnant Medicaid adults.
- Limit enhanced FMAP for Medicaid expansion to states that adopted the expansion as of March 1, 2017, and sunset enhanced FMAP for those states as of January 1, 2020 except for beneficiaries enrolled as of December 31, 2019 who do not have a break in eligibility of more than one month.
- Repeal the Medicare High Income tax increase and other ACA revenue provisions.
- Retain the ACA's requirement that ten essential benefit categories be covered but, beginning in 2018, the states will determine essential health benefits for purposes of the premium tax credit.
- Eliminate the Medicaid expansion option effective December 31, 2017, instead of January 1, 2020 as proposed in the initial version of the Act.
- Limit the enhanced match for the Medicaid expansion to 133% FPL to states that adopted expansion as of March 1, 2017.
C
ongress has just weeks to avert a government shutdown on April 29, and there appears to be little appetite for a shutdown this year. Since Congress would like to avoid another Continuing Resolution, work is proceeding quickly to finalize the 11 spending bills still pending. They will likely be rolled up into one Omnibus budget bill to speed action and it is widely assumed that Democratic support will be needed to pass an Omnibus budget. One poison pill that would complicate the process is an attempt to include funding for "the wall," but that might be taken up in a separate bill.
The Trump Administration recently sent input to Congress about this year's budget, and it contained some poison pills for the aging network. The administration recommended:
- A 94% cut in the State Health Insurance Program (SHIP), in Michigan known as MMAP;
- Total elimination of the Title V senior employment program;
- 60-80% cuts in senior volunteer programs - RSVP, Senior Companion & Foster Grandparents;
- A 43% cut in the Community Services Block Grant;
- A 50% cut in the Community Development Block Grant.
So far, there is no indication that Congress will include these cuts. Stay tuned . . .
*Published with permission of Area Agencies on Aging Association of Michigan.
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